Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says the AFL tribunal matrix is no longer fit for purpose after Paul Curtis ban

After a week in which most in the AFL agree Paul Curtis’ three-week tackle ban was all sorts of wrong one premiership coach says the whole system is out of whack.

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says the AFL tribunal matrix which landed on a three-game suspension for North Melbourne’s Paul Curtis is “outdated” and too “clinical” to judge football acts in a reasonable way.

Amid growing concern among coaches about the lengthy bans handed out because of outcomes, not actions, Beveridge said “you don’t need a matrix” and the league could instead ally the “civil law test” to assess each case.

After North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson lashed the leadership at the AFL for conceding there was an issue but opting not to fix it until the end of the season, Beveridge said the time had come for change.

“The regulatory framework and the matrix that the AFL use is outdated now,” Beveridge said on Friday.

Luke Beveridge, Senior Coach of the Bulldogs (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“We need to make sure that we need to look after the players who are playing the game and their intentions are pure.

“I feel like Paul’s were in the action and he’s extremely unlucky.”

Curtis was given the three-week suspension for a run-down tackle widely considered a football act, but which resulted in a concussion to Port Adelaide’s Josh Sinn.

But Beveridge said trying to apply the framework of the table of classifiable offences in the guidelines to such an act was too hard.

He said the guidelines were no longer fit for the purpose they were designed to serve.

“It’s set up as a really clinical way of responding to a situation that happens on the footy field,” he said.

“I just believe it needs to be rejigged and thought through in a different way. As I’ve said, just use the civil law test and balance of probabilities.

Josh Sinn of the Power is tackled by Paul Curtis (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“Did someone intend to hurt someone outside the laws of the game? If the answer is no, straight away (it should be) no penalty.

“You don’t need a matrix, you don’t need any framework.”

Curtis and teammate Luke Parker both protested the tackle ban on social media but were told by North Melbourne to remove their social media posts by club football boss Todd Viney.

“We sent out a message to our players to let sleeping dogs lie,” Viney told the ABC.

“I understand the frustrations but we asked them to take it all down.”

Originally published as Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says the AFL tribunal matrix is no longer fit for purpose after Paul Curtis ban